Wild Kratts: Power of Nature - Episode 24 - Butterfly Blues
by Taismo-89
Summary: Original idea by me and MimisaRi, collab written with Soul Rider. Aviva, Koki and Mina decides helping Martin to get over Maxilla's death by doing the Butterflier adventure again. Meanhwile, Zach decides using monarchs for a couch to get rid of pains on his back.


It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and things were calm in the Tortuga HQ. Maybe too calm…

The crew kept looking at the ceiling, with worried faces. Bite-Size, who was hunting bugs, after not being able to sleep, stopped by Koki's shoulder.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, guys. Where's Martin?" Laura asked, entering the HQ with Mina and Tania. "I wanna show him the dress I made for Mina."

Chris sighed. "He's on the Tortuga's shell."

"Well, I wonder what's he doing." Laura was going to the shell, until Chris stopped her.

"Wait," he said. "He'll be down in his own time, Laura."

"Why?"

"Oh, yeah... this day, not so long ago... Maxilla was gone," Mina remembered.

"Maxilla?" Laura asked, confused.

"Our monarch butterfly friend from the Voyage of the Butterflier XT expedition." Chris picked up the Wild Kratts Diary and opened it to a certain page.

* * *

_"We decided to follow a monarch butterfly during all its migration. But first, we picked a monarch caterpillar to start the adventure. That caterpillar… was Maxilla._

_After she entered her chrysalis mode, some days later, we saw her come out of it. And once she flew off, we followed her with Aviva's Butterflier XT._

_Martin liked Maxilla from the moment he named her. He eventually started to get worried about her, wanting to be by her side to protect her from the possible dangers from the journey._

_Things got worse, when Donita started to follow us, wanting all the monarchs for some new fashion statement, as you can expect._

_Although I kept warning Martin about Maxilla having "nature's know-how", he cared and feared for her anyway._

_By the time we reached the butterflies' colony and hibernated with them, Donita got them all under our noses. Except of course, for Maxilla._

_With her help, we activated our new monarch butterfly suits, and went to the rescue._

_But then, Maxilla stopped to lay an egg._

_"Maxilla! Wake up! Are you okay? WAKE UP!" Martin asked, desperately, as he saw his friend laying down._

_When I found out she was dying, Martin…*sigh* got heartbroken._

_"No, Maxilla... don't! You can't do that..."_

_He knew a butterfly life is short... but by the way he cared about her... it really hurt him to see his friend die."_

* * *

"Oh, dear..." Tania felt bad about Martin.

"Eventually, we stopped Donita, and helped the new generation of butterflies, including Maxilla Jr., to return home. But Martin insisted to give Maxilla... a proper funeral."

* * *

_"He was devastated. We buried Maxilla's body in the same place we met her._

_"Are you coming, bro?"_

_"Not now... I think I'll stay here for a while."_

_"Take your time, MK," Aviva said, trying to comfort him._

_We all entered the Tortuga, and Martin stayed there... quiet and sad."_

* * *

"I never saw Martin so sad..." Koki said. "Like Chris said, once Martin names a creature, he starts caring about it."

"He has plenty of care to share with many people and animals out there," Chris added. "I feel bad about seeing him like that..."

"Sometimes, he sighs when he see a butterfly," Mina thought. "I didn't know why until I read about the Butterflier XT expedition."

"Poor Martin... I wish we could do something..." Laura thought.

"Uh, guys? Martin's gone," Jimmy warned, after climbing on the shell to get some papers.

"WHAT?!" They all came up, to see Martin really was not there.

Chris found a note from his brother, and sighed. "I know where he is."

* * *

Not too far from HQ was the same milkweed field where the team met Maxilla. The Water Guardian had seated on the ground with his legs pulled up to him in front a small tombstone.

"Hey, Maxilla. Sorry I didn't visit you often. But boy, I have lots of things to tell."

"We should do something to make him feel better." Mina observed her big brother.

Chris looked at the diary, and had an idea.

"I know! Why don't we do this mission again? Sometimes when someone pass through something bad or have some kind of fear, he has to face it again to finally overcome it."

"Why don't we lead the mission this time, and you guys stay here monitoring everything?" Aviva suggested.

"Thanks, Viva. I'll tell Martin," Chris said.

"And we'll find a monarch caterpillar!" Mina said.

* * *

Zach woke up with pain in his back.

"Ouch! Zach's back hurts! This couch is undeniably uncomfortable!"

The Zachbots observed as he moaned of pain.

"Zachbots! I need something comfortable! NOW!" Zach suddenly saw a monarch caterpillar crawling on a plant.

"AAAACK! A worm! Get it away from me!"

The Zachbots grabbed the caterpillar, but by "getting away", they understood "putting somewhere else". So they placed it on a plant at the building's opening.

* * *

"Colombina's coming out of her chrysalis, guys!" Mina warned.

The crew reunited around the milkweed vase Mina observed. It was true, Colombina, the caterpillar they chose, was already coming out. Martin sighed, but gave it a weak smile.

"And the new and improved Butterflier XT is ready for action!" Aviva said.

"And so are us!" Koki said. "Miniturize!"

A monarch butterfly entered the HQ, like it was calling Colombina. Once it landed, Martin placed a tag on it. "Number 7. Um... Maxeen?"

"I'm fine with it," Mina said. Then, she placed another tag on Colombina's wing. "And Colombina here's the number 16."

"Let's try tagging the maximum of butterflies during the migration, so we'll be sure nothing bad happens to them," Martin suggested.

"That's okay with me," Aviva said.

"Okay! To the Butterflier, girls! Mission Monarch 2 ready to start," Chris announced. "Ready to countdown."

As Chris relayed the countdown, the girls climbed on the Butterflier, ready to leave.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1!" The monarchs started to fly, being followed by the girls in the Butterflier.

"Bon voyage!" Chris said.

"Sayonara!" Jimmy said.

"Good luck..." Martin said in a low tone.

* * *

Zach yawned. "Ten nights of bad sleep is too much for Zach to handle..." The caterpillar came out of its chrysalis, turned into a monarch butterfly. Zach shrieked as he saw the butterfly, making the Zachbots run after it. But as it stopped for a moment on the couch, Zach had another monstuous idea.

"Hmm...these vermins are so light...If I could get many of them, I could make a perfect couch! No more pains for Zach Varmitech!" He laguhed evilly.

* * *

"You're already better as a pilot than Chris, Koki!" Aviva complimented, as Koki drove the Butteflier.

"Well, you made this a lot easier. I love this new monitor. I can easily pilot and be warned about problems around the Butterflier." Koki said. Then, she saw a bird on the radar. "Like that!"

"Hang on, little sister!" Aviva told Mina. She immediatly held tightly on her seat. Koki flipped the Butterflier, leaving the bird behind. Mina lost her grip and would've fell, if it wasn't for Aviva's hand.

"Phew. Thanks, big sis." Mina breathed heavily on her sister's lap. That was scary.

"Better keep her close, Viva," Koki told her.

Suddenly, they saw the rest of the monarch butterflies. "Time to tag the maximum we can. Thank goodness I programmed an mechanic arm on this Butterlflier."

Koki pressed a button, and without the butterflies noticing, placed a tag on each one's wing.

"These tags are pretty light. And since these are more sticker-like, they'll not hurt the creatures. You're a genius, Viva."

"Say something I don't know," Aviva said, making Mina chuckle.

At the Tortuga, the boys received the signals on the monitor.

"They're doing great. We now have the monarchs on our watch. But let's not forget about the girls, Colombina and Maxeen," Chris said.

"I'll try," Martin sighed, observing the girls on the screen.

"Uh-oh. Low energy levels. We need to refill the tanks," Koki pointed out.

"Look! We can refill on those flowers!" Aviva said. Koki nodded in approval, and landed close to them.

* * *

"Day 3 of Mission Monarch 2. The girls are refilling. They're already doing better than us," Chris relayed, as Jimmy filmed everything.

"*soft chuckle* Way better. I remember that we fell once we saw the tank was empty," Martin commented, his spirit lifted a bit at the memory.

"Well, that Butterflier was way hard to pilot. But Aviva made some good improvments on this model."

* * *

"Filling up your tank, Maxeen? So are we," Mina said, experimenting the nectar. "Hmmm... sweet... Now I see why bees, butterflies and other animals like this."

"There's Colombina. Just in time, buddy. Tank filled," Koki warned.

"Okay. Let's get going," Aviva said, with Mina following her. When Maxeen started flying and following Colombina, the girls followed both of them.

* * *

"Mission Monarch 2 going as planned. The girls are now flying over the ocean, following the tagged monarchs," Chris said. Martin kept watching the girls on the screen.

Meanwhile, the girls faced some hard weather on the way.

"This wind is getting strong!" Koki complained, struggling to keep the Butterflier steady.

"We need to stop somewhere!"

"There, on the boat! The other monarchs have landed," Mina pointed out. Koki steered the Butterflier down and they landed on the bars in between Colombina and Maxeen.

"This boat looks extremely familiar," Aviva said. "From all this grey, you would think it's-"

"There!" a familiar voice yelled.

"Uh oh," the girls stated.

"Catch those butterflies!" Zachbots came at them with butterfly nets.

"Zach attack!" Koki shouted. "Let's get outta here!" All the butterflies, including Maxeen, Colombina and the girls took off.

"Get those monarchs! I want them all!" Zach said, until the Zachbots bumped into him. "*grunt* I gotta improve these robots' intelligence."

"What would Zach want with the monarchs?!" Aviva wondered.

"Don't worry, girls. We'll keep an eye on Zach." Bite-Size appeared on the screen.

"That was a close one!" Chris exclaimed.

"Yeah... too close..." Martin said, with a gloomy tone. The brunette noticed he wasn't at the monitor. Chris sighed, and put a hand on his brother's shoulder, as they watched the change of color on the leaves outside.

* * *

"Well, looks like the rest of the journey will be smooth sailing now," Koki said, as Maxeen got out of a spider web.

"Luckily, monarchs are poisonous. So I guess spiders won't make the same mistake twice."

"Look! A Wild Kratts Kid is waving to us! Hi, guys!" Mina waved.

"*giggle* Silly, we're really tiny. They won't know we're here. Unless maybe the boys warned them about our journey," Aviva thought.

"You got that right, Aviva. We warned the Wild Kratts Kids about Mission Monarch 2, and they're trying to take a look of the monarchs," Chris said on the screen.

"How's Martin?" Mina asked.

"Um... about that..."

The Kratt in blue was outside the Tortuga, sighing.

"Martin, aren't you supposed to keeping track of the monarchs?" Bite-Size asked.

"Ugh! I can't! I can't stand seeing that again, guys!" Martin confessed, as he entered the Tortuga. "Think about Mina. She's just a kid. Maybe she'll also get..."

"Silly, she already knows about death. Seeing the full monarch butterfly life cycle will not traumatize her," Chris said.

"At least we're not the ones that die so fast!" Jimmy stated. Martin felt like crying again with those words, and left the room crying. Chris glared at the redhead.

"You had to say that?!" he scolded.

"Sorry."

"*grunt* Well, back to the girls. Looks like they're really close now. Only some more meters, and they'll reach Mexico."

"Mexico, huh?" Zach was intercepting their signal, without any of them noticing. "So that's where we'll head now, Zachbots!" His ship turned around to go to Mexico.

* * *

"Here we are, girls," Aviva said, with a tone of wonder.

"Wow... beautiful." Koki observed the butterflies around her. "The secret hideout of the monarch butterflies."

"It's wonderful... like an autumn afternoon," Mina commented, as the Butterflier landed close to Colombina and Maxeen. "My sister always used to bring me autumn leaves. One as beautiful as the other."

"Nice work, monarchs," Aviva said, as she started yawning.

"Looks like it's hibernation time for them... and so for you girls," Chris said, calling the girls.

Koki pointed down to Aviva's lap: Mina was deep asleep. Her snores sound like a cheetah chirp.

"How's everything, boys?"

"All okay, expect one thing JZ said to Martin these days..." Chris said.

"I said I was sorry!" Jimmy complained.

"Nevermind that. Winter season has arrived here, girls," Chris informed them, only to not see them in the Butterflier. "Girls?"

"*yawn* And now it's hibernation time," Koki said. "What a journey... this girl here needs to catch some Z's... but I'll call you later, boys..." She fell asleep, hugging Aviva and Mina, under a warm butterfly wing.

"Well, now we only have to wait four months. We know they won't be sleeping forever, so we can call them time to time," Chris said.

Martin sighed. "These will be long months..."

* * *

*BG music: Queen - Another One Bites the Dust*

While the girls watched over the monarchs, the boys kept alert for any problems. Well, mostly Chris and Jimmy. Martin still felt reluctant about monitoring the monarchs, fearing to suffer the same pain he felt on the first Butterflier Adventure.

Meanwhile, Zach grunted in anger, as he reached every single place, except for Mexico.

"Now I know how Donita felt..." he grunted at the last wrong turn.

The last week approached. The girls even celebrated Koki's birthday during the hibernation.

* * *

On the last day of hibernation, Zach arrived.

"Finally! Get all the butterflies you can, Zachbots!" Zach ordered. The girls were deep asleep, with Colombina and Maxeen close to them.

Aviva didn't seemed to notice the Zachbots passing by, and slicing a part of the branch with Maxeen.

But once she heard Zach's evil cackle, she woke up.

"Hey, s-stop!" she said, with her eyes bare opened.

"Don't touch them... wait. Who are you talking to?" Koki asked, also waking up.

"Sorry, had a bad dream. That Zach came here and..."

"Took the monarchs with him!" Mina warned them, pointing out to the cut branches. Aviva realized it wasn't a dream. IT HAPPENED!

"Oh, no!" Koki rushed to the Butterflier. "Martin, come in Martin!" Koki called. Problem was, the blue brother wasn't present. "Martin?" Martin came out of another room. He looked a little better than before.

"Oh, be right there Koki," he said, heading to her station. He hit a button that would show the transmitting tags. The Water Guardian gasped when he saw several of them at once disappear. "Oh no!"

"What's the matter, Martin?" Chris asked.

"Several of the butterfly tags have gone out! They've just disappeared!"

"Is Tag Number 16 - Colombina - one of the missing butterflies?" Jimmy asked him in worry.

"No, but Maxeen, Number 7, is!"

"Martin, Zach's the one that took the butterflies!" Aviva called on her Creature Pod. "I don't know what he's planning, but we gotta do something!"

Martin couldn't hold his sobbing. "I'm so sorry, girls! This is all my fault! I was so upset about Maxilla being a goner I forgot to monitor you guys! And now, Zach's gonna make something with the monarchs!"

"Not if we can stop him!" Aviva said. "Don't worry, MK."

"Great! Thanks, buddy!" They all looked at Mina, who was talking with Colombina. "She said she'll help us free her friends, then she'll lay her egg."

"We gotta act fast then! We got to save Maxeen and the other monarchs!" Koki proclaimed. "Can you guys teleport the monarch suits?"

"On it!" Martin said, wiping his eyes and picking up the disks. "I'm not failing the monarchs again! Send 'em, JZ!"

"Energize!" Jimmy said.

Koki and Aviva received both suits, and Mina climbed on Colombina's back.

"Caterpillar?" Aviva said, as she activated, and reactivated. "That's more like it. I thought I fixed this a long time ago. Koki?" Koki came out of her chrysalis, with wings.

"To the monarch rescue!" the girls cheered.

* * *

"Now, let's see if these mini-mind control helmets work," Zach said, finishing building the tiny mind-controlling helmets. His plane was landed not so far from the butterflies' place.

As he turned around he gasped. The butterflies were all laying down in the giant glass.

"No! Keep floating, you winged thingies! I need you to be alive!"

"Let the butterflies go, Zach!" Aviva's voice was heard. Then, he heard the Miniturizer sound. The butterflier, along with Aviva and Koki, got big.

"They need to fulfill their life cycle!" Koki said.

"Oh, and what are two overgrown bugs like you gonna do about it?"

"Milkweeds, anyone?" Mina asked, on Colombina's back, calling the monarchs' attention. Then, she struggled to open the glass door with her powers. All that hibernation made her a bit rusty, but also gave her some more strength.

"Go lay your eggs, monarchs!"

"No! My butterflies! My couch!" Zach said.

"Butterfly couch?!" Koki asked, enraged.

"Are you nuts!?" Aviva shouted. Just then, Maxeen landed on Zach's nose. When he saw her there, he shrieked, running away, as the girls and their butterfly friends flew away from there, putting the Butterflier on autopilot.

Just by that instant, the boys landed the Tortuga. "Nice work, girls," Chris said, as they all saw Zach's plane go away.

"Guys... look," Martin said.

Colombina and Maxeen finally laid their eggs, on the milkweeds where they came out of their chrysalis. Martin watched everything, until he saw one of them lay down.

"Maxeen!" Martin carefully picked up the dying butterfly. Tears came to his eyes. The monarch looked up at him.

"M-Martin..." she called weakly. "All living things... don't live forever... so one must do... what they have to do... in their time... or it's... too late..." The butterfly seemed to nudge his thumb with her head. "I understand that it's hard... to lose someone close... and live with it... but that's life... you can't change that..."

"Maxeen..."

"Just don't let despair... take over your life... because you still have it..." With that last statement, her whole body went limp.

Martin though he would burst into tears, but instead… he felt weirdly relieved. "I don't get it… I thought I would be sad, but… I'm not..." Chris put a hand on his shoulder.

"What Maxeen said is true. All creatures and plants have to end at some point. It's how nature designed us. And nothing can be done about it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Martin smiled, feeling better.

Hermia appeared to them. Both were a bit surprised.

"I am really proud of you all. You saved the butterfliers' life cycle, and didn't keep them from doing it."

"Yeah... it was hard, but I feel better," Martin said. "Sorry, guys. I promise I'll never let this happen again."

"Well, looks like we have now two new butterflies coming," Mina said, pointing to the mikweeds: there were two buttefly eggs.

* * *

The Tortuga's door opened, with two butteflies in Mina's hands. Chris gave Martin a card. Once Martin opened it, there was a paper butterfly. He smiled to his little brother.

"Bye, Pietra. Bye, Kia. Go follow your mothers' steps," Mina said, as she let the butterflies go.

Then, a butterfly approached the Wild Kratts. Mina gasped. "She said.. her name's Maxilla! Just like the first Maxilla from its past generations."

"Heredity between butterflies? Now that's new," Chris said.

"She wanted to thank us all for helping her mother, and her grandmother... our Maxilla."

"It was nothing, Maxilla. Really," Martin said, smiling. He had finally overcome the first Maxilla's death, and felt a lot better.

"There they go... returning home. Migrating back to its home..." Aviva said.

"...following their nature's know-how..." Martin said, lifting Mina.

"...living free and in the wild," Chris concluded, as they all waved to the butteflies, as the sun set.


End file.
